The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for recording moving and still pictures, and an apparatus and a method for reproducing recorded moving and still pictures, as well as a recording medium.
Recently, along with tendency toward large scale in capacity of recording medium such as rewritable optical disks, etc. and with improvement in techniques for compressing moving pictures, the techniques for digital cameras and recordable players, etc. that have the function of recording moving pictures on optical disks have been reviewed. Under the situation, recordings of both moving and still pictures on optical disks in a common format have coming into reality.
As such a compression method, it would be advantageous to use the MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) standard for recording moving pictures from the viewpoint of compression efficiency. The MPEG standard is a well-known technique described in, for example, xe2x80x9cThe Latest Guidebook to MPEGxe2x80x9d (ASCII Co., Ltd., Aug. 1, 1994), etc. The detailed description for the MPEG will thus be omitted here.
As for a compression method for still pictures, the JPEG (Joint Photographic coding Experts Group) standard used for recording digital still pictures from general electronic still cameras may be replaced with another method if the method can record the data equivalent to one frame of moving pictures recorded by the MPEG as I picture. If the recordable player described above has a means for expanding pictures compressed by, for example, the MPEG compression method, and then both moving and still pictures can be reproduced. In this case, it is no need to use such an expanding means as JPEG for reproducing pictures, thereby the cost of the reproducing system can be reduced.
However, the data must be processed fast to encode moving pictures in real time and it is impossible to increase the number of pixels per frame of moving pictures so much. For example, the maximum number of pixels per frame is 720 in the horizontal direction and 480 in the vertical direction on the encoding level referred to as the main profile main level which handles the resolution of the present TV sets, required for the MPEG method. On the other hand, the encoding time for one sheet of still pictures is not limited so strictly, so that the number of pixels to be handled in accordance with the high resolution of the object photographing element can be increased. Consequently, most of the present electronic still cameras can record still pictures with the use of the JPEG compression method and the number of pixels to be handled by those cameras is being increased year after year.
In order to enable any reproducing apparatus such as recordable players and ordinary players to reproduce data on the basis of the MPEG, as well as record high resolution still pictures, it is only needed to record both MPEG I pictures and JPEG file pictures. Such techniques are disclosed in, for example, the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 10-108133 According to the disclosed techniques, pictures is encoded and recorded with a plurality of different methods at a time and both moving and still pictures are encoded and recorded simultaneously. The conventional techniques, however, do not consider encoding of still pictures read from a fine photographing element with the use of such an encoding method as MPEG for moving pictures. In particular, no care is paid for the difference in reading pictures from a photographing element between reading fine still pictures and reading moving pictures.
Furthermore, the above conventional techniques do not consider any correspondence to recordings of both moving and still pictures, although they can record both encoded still pictures and partial still pictures so as to make it easier for an user to control the apparatus, for example, for searching pictures when in reproducing.
Generally, the number of pixels to be read from a photographing element within a unit time is limited. The number of pixels to be read per frame of moving pictures therefore is also limited. On the other hand, a long time can be spared to read a large number of pixels from still pictures slowly. Consequently, if an apparatus that employs a fine photographing element is used to record fine still pictures, a sheet of pictures is read by spending a time required for reading one or more frames. The reading method thus comes to differ between moving picture and still pictures.
Under the circumstances, it is the first object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method for recording pictures, which are preferred to solve the above conventional problems and enable recordable players and other ordinary players which reproduce moving pictures to reproduce and record fine still pictures, as well.
It is the second object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method for recording pictures, which is more improved in controlling such reproducing operations as searching even when in recording both moving and still pictures, as well as a recording medium in which pictures are recorded as described above.
Furthermore, it is the third object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method for reproducing both moving and still pictures, which can reproduce the recording medium on which pictures are recorded with the use of the recording apparatus and the recording method described above, as well as improved more in controlling such reproducing operations as searching and composed simply.
In order to achieve the first object, the recording method of the present invention used for a video recording apparatus that can record both moving and still pictures on a recording medium includes steps for recording moving pictures encoded with the use of the first encoding method when in recording moving pictures; and for recording still pictures encoded with the use of the second encoding method and other still pictures encoded by the first encoding method from single frame signals obtained from the still pictures when in recording still pictures. Furthermore, the video recording apparatus of the present invention comprises optical focusing means composed of an optical lens system; photoelectric converting means for converting pictures focused by the optical focusing means to electric signals; signal processing means for converting electric signals converted by the photoelectric converting means to video signals; driving means provided with two modes (moving picture photographing mode and still picture photographing mode) so as to drive reading of electric signals from the photoelectric converting means so that the video signals are converted to predetermined moving picture signals in the moving photographing mode and drive reading of electric signals from the photoelectric converting means so that the video signals are converted to video signals finer than the moving picture signals in the still picture photographing mode; signal converting means for converting the signal format of fine video signals in the still picture photographing mode to the same format as that of single frame moving picture signals in the moving picture photographing mode; moving picture encoding means for encoding moving picture signals output from the signal processing means with the use of the first encoding method in the moving picture photographing mode and encoding single frame signals output from the signal converting means with the use of the first encoding method in the still picture photographing mode; still picture encoding means for encoding fine video signals with the use of the second encoding method in the still picture photographing mode; recording controlling means for controlling a recording medium for recording encoded moving and still pictures and recording of moving and still pictures on the recording medium; system controlling means for controlling each of the above means one-dimensionally; and selecting means for selecting one of the recording modes. The recording apparatus can thus record moving images encoded by the moving encoding means when in recording moving pictures and record still pictures encoded by the still picture encoding means, as well as other still pictures encoded by the moving encoding means from single frame signals obtained from the still pictures when in recording still pictures.
The video recording apparatus of the present invention further includes moving picture storing means for storing single frame signals output from the signal converting means in the still picture photographing mode; and still picture storing means for storing fine video signals so that the recording apparatus records moving pictures by reading moving picture signals from the moving picture storing means and encoding them with the use of the moving picture encoding means when in recording moving pictures and records still pictures by reading still pictures from the fine still picture storing means and encoding them with the use of the still picture encoding means when in recording still pictures, and also records fine video signals read from the moving picture storing means and encoded by the moving picture encoding means. The fine video signals are stored once in the still picture storing means before they are converted to single frame signals by the signal converting means, then stored in the moving picture storing means.
In order to achieve the second object of the present invention, the present invention provides a recording method characterized in that when in recording moving pictures, moving pictures are recorded together with a still picture obtained by compressing signals of a frame representing the moving pictures to record and when in recording still pictures, compressed still pictures are also recorded together with non-compressed still pictures. The recording method also employs screen compressing means for compressing the screen of pictures of a frame representing the moving picture signals to record when in recording moving pictures and compressing the screen of still pictures to record when in recording still pictures, so that when in recording of moving pictures, moving pictures encoded by the moving encoding means are recorded together with still pictures whose screen is compressed by the screen compressing means and when in recording of still pictures, still pictures encoded by the still picture encoding means are recorded together with other still pictures encoded by the moving encoding means from single frame signals obtained from the still pictures, and further other still pictures whose screen is compressed by the screen compressing means.
Furthermore, the present invention provides the recording method characterized in that when in recording of moving pictures, moving pictures are recorded together with a still picture obtained by compressing the signals of a frame representing the moving pictures to record and when in recording of still pictures, still pictures obtained by compressing the single frame signals to be encoded by the first encoding method is also recorded. The video recording apparatus further includes screen compressing means for compressing the screen of pictures of a frame representing moving picture signals to record when in recording moving pictures and compressing the screen of single frame signals obtained from the still pictures when in recording still pictures, so that when in recording moving pictures, the moving pictures encoded by the moving picture encoding means are recorded together with the still pictures whose screen is compressed by the screen compressing means and when in recording still pictures, the still pictures encoded by the still picture encoding means are recorded together with still pictures encoded by the moving picture encoding means from single frame signals obtained from the still pictures, as well as other still pictures whose screen is compressed by the screen compressing means.
The present invention also provides a recording method for recording a still picture obtained by compressing signals of a frame representing the moving pictures to record when in recording moving pictures and recording either compressed still pictures or still pictures obtained by compressing single frame signals to be encoded by the first encoding method. In this case, the video recording apparatus of the present invention further includes screen compressing means for compressing the screen of pictures of a frame representing the object moving picture signals when in recording moving pictures and compressing the screen of either the still pictures or single frame signals obtained from the still pictures when in recording still pictures, so that when in recording moving pictures, moving pictures encoded by the moving picture encoding means are recorded together with still pictures whose screen is compressed by the screen compressing means and when in recording still pictures, still pictures encoded by the still picture encoding means are recorded together with other still pictures encoded by the moving picture encoding means from single frame signals obtained from the same still pictures, and further other still pictures whose screen is compressed by the screen compressing means.
Furthermore, the present invention further provides a recording medium on which moving pictures encoded by the first encoding means are recorded together with still pictures obtained by compressing the screen of a representative one of the moving pictures, other still pictures encoded by the second encoding method, single frame moving pictures created from the still pictures encoded by the first encoding method, and further other still pictures whose screen is compressed.
In order to achieve the third object of the present invention, the present invention provides a reproducing method that can reproduce the above recording medium, wherein it is possible to reproduce and output single frame moving pictures created from the still pictures encoded by the first encoding method corresponding to the selected still picture to at least one output destination when a still picture whose screen is compressed is selected and called. In this case, the reproducing method allows a still picture corresponding to the called still picture to be output in accordance with the picture resolution of the output destination. Furthermore, the video reproducing apparatus of the present invention further includes picture selecting means for specifying one of reproduced still pictures whose screen is compressed; reproducing controlling means for controlling reproduction of single frame moving pictures created from still pictured encoded by the first encoding method corresponding to the selected still picture when the selected still picture is a still picture whose screen is compressed: moving picture decoding means for decoding reproduced single frame moving pictures using the first encoding method.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a reproducing method used for a video reproducing apparatus that can reproduce the above recording medium, wherein a single frame moving picture created from a still picture encoded by the first encoding method corresponding to a selected still picture is reproduced and displayed when a still picture whose screen is compressed is selected and called. In this case, the reproducing apparatus that uses the above reproducing method is further provided with picture selecting means for specifying one of reproduced still pictures whose screen is compressed; reproducing control means for reproducing single frame moving pictures created from the still pictures encoded by the first encoding means corresponding to the selected still picture when the selected still picture is a still picture whose screen is compressed; moving picture decoding means for decoding the reproduced single frame moving pictures using the first encoding method; and displaying means for displaying decoded single frame moving pictures.